Q&A with Paul Reville on Rethinking How, When, asks and Where Kids Learn

Since early 2020, our educational system has drastically adapted to address the challenges from the pandemic. As we anticipate the new school year, the outlook on education looks very different. SCRI recently sat down with Paul Reville, Harvard Graduate School of Education Professor and education visionary, to capture his thinking about post- pandemic schooling in America.

Q: There’s a lot of talk about building back better in education. How do we know that K-12 education is in need of transformational change? Why can’t we keep going as-is? Paul Reville Paul: We have recognized, ever since the 1983 Nation at Risk report, that our current education system is not adequately meeting the needs of students and society. We’ve just come through 25 to 30 years Paul Reville is the Francis Keppel of intensive, expensive and energetic school reform in this country, but Professor of Practice of Educational we’ve made relatively little progress in closing persistent opportunity Policy and Administration at and achievement gaps. the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) and the founding As a result, we’ve got substantial swaths of the population director of HGSE’s Education either dropping out or graduating without the necessary skills to be successful in careers or in college. If nothing else, we Redesign Lab. Reville is also longtime have proven during the period of school reform that exclusively member of the Board of Directors of focusing on school optimization is insufficient to create an equal BellXcel. opportunity society.

In 2013, Reville completed nearly five years of service as the Secretary of Education for the Commonwealth “When schools closed, a lot of of Massachusetts. His new book is inequities became very apparent. Collaborative Action for Equity and People began to understand that basics Opportunity: A Practical Guide for School and Community Leaders. like food, stable housing, health care and safety are prerequisites for any child to be ready to learn.”

1 We have to ask ourselves, what are we going to do as established or structured to meet these needs. communities to make it possible for all children to have Further, the pandemic revealed that things like Internet opportunities that those of us with privilege provide for access, family engagement, access to enrichment and our own children? What are we going to do to make mental health care all have an enormous impact on the it possible for all children to have the basics, like food, capacity of schools to succeed. stable housing, healthcare, optical care and dental care? It’s now easier to see that a lack of basic opportunities These are preconditions that would enable a child and supports constrains many young people and their to come to school genuinely ready to learn. Other schools from being successful. So, I think this more societies have been able to do that. The notion that in holistic view of young people has moved to the center. 20% of a child’s waking hours, schools are going to be This makes the current moment a time of promise. It’s able to level our grossly unequal playing field that is life almost a cliche now to say that people ought to make in America is just magical thinking. And so, I think we’ve the best of a crisis, but that’s the opportunity we have in got to get over that. We can do better. I think a lot of this moment. hopeful things have emerged from the pandemic that point to some productive directions. Q: What are the barriers to change? Paul: The education system is a very conservative system. We redo what we’ve always done, however unsuccessful, “ [Schools] had to develop because it’s so locked in, politically and otherwise, that an emergency response, and making change is very difficult and controversial. There’s some of them hope, however. have managed to refine that Before the pandemic, the education industry was slow to adopt technology, with a few notable exceptions. response into something Suddenly last March, people were catapulted into the beginning to approach the use age of educational technology. They had to develop an of state-of-the art technology emergency response, and some of them have managed to refine that response into something beginning to for educational purposes. approach the use of state-of-the art technology for educational purposes. Now you’ve got people rolling. Now you’ve got people rolling. How do you direct and use that momentum? How do you direct and use The other thing that I’ll say is while we have overcome that momentum?” the initial inertia that keeps people doing the same thing, people are also exhausted and overwhelmed. So, in some respects, a reversion to the status quo is Q: How has the pandemic opened doors for psychologically attractive to people. That is the real meaningful change? How are key stakeholders seeing current risk we face. things differently now? Paul: I think the general public perceives, with a greater Q: Keeping in mind those barriers, what sense of urgency than ever before, what children need transformational changes should educational leaders to be successful in school and life. When schools closed, consider as we emerge from the pandemic? a lot of inequities became very apparent. People began Paul: My top priority is personalization. I often say, if to understand that basics like food, stable housing, we did medicine like we do education, then everybody health care and safety are prerequisites for any child who walks through the front door of the hospital would to be ready to learn. Schools have always put a band- get the same treatment and have the same length of aid or temporary solution to address those needs, and stay, no matter what’s actually going on with them. It when they closed, things fell apart. Schools weren’t doesn’t work.

2 I’m hoping that this pandemic and the differential Unified School District. Effective children’s cabinets effects on learning loss will finally break the one-size- are present in Chattanooga, Tennessee and Somerville, fits-all model of education and allow us to move toa Massachusetts. Additionally, New York City is very personalized model where we meet children where they enthusiastic about the children’s cabinet that they are in early childhood and give them what they need are developing. inside and outside of school. We’d develop a success plan for each child, like keeping a running record in medicine—a profile of each child that travels with them “I’m hoping that this and captures their unique educational journey. pandemic and the differential Another area for transformative growth is relationships. We hear a lot of talk about “learning loss,” as though the effects on learning loss will problem of missed opportunities during the pandemic finally break the one-size-fits- was merely a technical problem of pouring knowledge into kids’ heads. However, if there’s a major challenge all model of education.” for students coming back to school, it’s rebuilding relationships that were so suddenly and deeply fractured One way that districts can attend to relationships is in when schools closed. their approach to personalize learning. For example, Even before the pandemic, mental health problems, Nashville just took a big step forward by appointing anxiety and alienation were overwhelming schools. a navigator for each of its 26,000 students. The We have to end the anonymity that is all too navigator is someone the family and the student can common in schools. Part of personalization is having communicate with who is keeping a portfolio and a resource—navigator, coach, advocate—to follow helping that child move through the system. It’s possible each student and connect to their families throughout for districts to start in very modest ways, like giving a the process. Given the crisis of the pandemic, school administrator, guidance counselor or teacher many school systems were actively reaching out to a group of kids. Maybe it’s the homeroom group but families to check in on students who were missing the navigator interviews each of them individually, or unengaged. We need to rebuild that kind of begins to build a lasting relationship and also connects connection between home and school as a partnership to their family. for children’s learning. We often say, your budget shows what you value. So, where do we see families in the school budget? Q: What are some things communities and districts Basically, they’re invisible. If we want people to take it can do now, and who can they learn from? seriously, we have to build it into the budget and make Paul: I want to see children’s cabinets formed in every expenditures on personnel. Whether it’s additional community. We’ve got to think more holistically about teacher time or a family coordinator in each building, the lives of young people in the way I was discussing someone should be paid to spend time connecting earlier—365 days a year, 24 hours a day, what’s going to families, doing family visits, welcoming families into this child’s life? A children’s cabinet brings the whole into schools and following up on any school problems. community together to think about what we need to do There is a lot the younger generation can do, like City for young people for them to thrive and prosper. Year or other corps members, to be that connective Children’s cabinets start by identifying the unmet needs tissue between families and schools. We have a in children’s lives. Once they’ve done that, they can lot of research that indicates that tutoring would advocate for programs, policy and budgetary changes be a very good first step for a lot of young people. that address those gaps. Corps members could also help families set up technology friendly environments for students to work in Some strong examples of community-based efforts are and things of that nature. It’s really about re-envisioning seen in the Louisville 502 organization and in Oakland’s roles within schools. 3 Q: Finally, how does back-to-school need to look “We’ve got a very strong different in fall 2021? body of research proving Paul: It needs to be about rebuilding a culture that’s been crashed. I see it in my own teaching. When you’re the benefits of summer teaching on Zoom, you can’t assume the same kinds of enrichment—getting active connections and the atmosphere that you have when physically, meeting other you’re in person with people. Teachers and schools are going to have to be intentional about welcoming peers and role models who students, supporting them, engaging them and are doing exciting things. reconnecting with them while simultaneously adopting some of the features of trauma-free schools, like safety We need to make more and belonging. opportunities for those Our mania about learning loss needs to be secondary to kinds of things to happen helping students feel connected with a focus on having for everybody.” fun, moving around and hanging out together. That’s a first step. And then I think teachers also need time to catch up because we’ve been woefully neglectful in providing adequate professional development and Q: What opportunities are you excited about support via teacher contracts and standard operating right now? procedures. Teachers haven’t received enough time to Paul: The new federal money coming down is incorporate some of the technology tools and methods significant, and how we spend it is going to make all that can be hybridized and brought into the classroom. the difference. I think the summer presents an enormous I think teachers need the opportunity to learn how to opportunity right now. It’s particularly urgent because best use these tools in meaningful ways, some of which you’ve got students who’ve been disconnected for a have never been done. long time. We’ve long paid too little attention to summer as a powerful learning time. We’ve regarded it as a “nice “Teachers and schools are to have,” not an essential. We’ve got a very strong going to have to be intentional body of research proving the benefits of summer enrichment—getting active physically, meeting other about welcoming students, peers and role models who are doing exciting things. supporting them, engaging We need to make more opportunities for those kinds of things to happen for everybody. them and reconnecting with I think one of the ways is to make summer a pilot them while simultaneously for what we do during the rest of the year. Let’s get adopting some of the features students engaged and connected in deeper learning. of trauma-free schools, like We can use the summer to bring the community into the classroom to engage students in solving real-life safety and belonging.” problems. We can get students working in groups to break down the notion that all of learning, achievement and measurement is based on your performance as an individual. Supporting this approach is a clear message from employers—communication, collaboration and interpersonal skills are very important to the future workforce and their hiring requirements.

4 Paul Reville is the Francis Keppel Professor of Practice of Educational Policy and Administration at the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE). He is the founding director of HGSE’s Education Redesign Lab. In 2013, he completed nearly five years of service as the Secretary of Education for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. As Governor Patrick’s top education advisor, Reville established a new Executive Office of Education and had oversight of higher education, K-12 and early education in the nation’s leading student achievement state. He served in the Governor’s Cabinet and played a leading education reform role on matters ranging from the Paul Reville Achievement Gap Act of 2010 and Common Core State Standards to the Commonwealth’s highly successful Race to the Top proposal. Prior to joining the Patrick Administration, Reville chaired the Massachusetts State Board of Education; founded the Rennie Center for Education Research and Policy; co-founded the Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education (MBAE); chaired the Massachusetts Reform Review Commission; chaired the Massachusetts Commission on Time and Learning; and served as executive director of the Pew Forum on Standards-Based Reform, a national think tank which convened the U.S.’s leading researchers, practitioners and policymakers to set the national standards agenda. Reville played a central role in MBAE’s development of and advocacy for Massachusetts historic Education Reform Act of 1993. He is a board member and advisor to a host of organizations—including BellXcel, Match Education, Bellwether, City Year Boston and others. He is a frequent writer and speaker on education reform and policy issues. He holds a B.A. from Colorado College, a M.A. from Stanford University and five honorary doctorate degrees.

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